#region Apache License
//
// Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more 
// contributor license agreements. See the NOTICE file distributed with
// this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership. 
// The ASF licenses this file to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0
// (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with 
// the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at
//
// http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
//
// Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
// distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
// WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
// See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
// limitations under the License.
//
#endregion

using System;

namespace log4net.Appender
{
  /// <summary>
  /// Interface that can be implemented by Appenders that buffer logging data and expose a <see cref="Flush"/> method.
  /// </summary>
  public interface IFlushable
  {
    /// <summary>
    /// Flushes any buffered log data.
    /// </summary>
    /// <remarks>
    /// Appenders that implement the <see cref="Flush"/> method must do so in a thread-safe manner: it can be called concurrently with
    /// the <see cref="log4net.Appender.IAppender.DoAppend"/> method.
    /// <para>
    /// Typically this is done by locking on the Appender instance, e.g.:
    /// <code>
    /// <![CDATA[
    /// public bool Flush(int millisecondsTimeout)
    /// {
    ///     lock(this)
    ///     {
    ///         // Flush buffered logging data
    ///         ...
    ///     }
    /// }
    /// ]]>
    /// </code>
    /// </para>
    /// <para>
    /// The <paramref name="millisecondsTimeout"/> parameter is only relevant for appenders that process logging events asynchronously,
    /// such as <see cref="RemotingAppender"/>.
    /// </para>
    /// </remarks>
    /// <param name="millisecondsTimeout">The maximum time to wait for logging events to be flushed.</param>
    /// <returns><c>True</c> if all logging events were flushed successfully, else <c>false</c>.</returns>
    bool Flush(int millisecondsTimeout);
  }
}
